1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a shift lever for a transmission and, more particularly, to an apparatus for supporting a shift lever used to control a floor remote control type transmission.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A floor-mounted shift lever is used to shift gears by manipulating in at least two directions, for example not only in a right-left direction but in a longitudinal direction intersecting perpendicularly to the right-left direction, and therefore the shift-lever supporting apparatus must have a construction that allows the shift lever to tilt in at least two directions. To give a vehicle driver an actual feeling of shift lever manipulation, the shift lever supporting apparatus is required to have some resistance in relation to a manipulation force and also to permit the smooth movement of the shift lever.
A shift lever supporting apparatus of prior art satisfying such a requirement is stated in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 60-65829. A diagramatic representation of the construction of the apparatus is shown in FIG. 5. A shift lever 50 is provided with a ball portion 51, which is held between a pair of upper and lower seats 52. These seats 52 have a nearly semi-spherical inner surface in contact with the ball portion 51. Therefore, since the ball portion 51 can rotate in multiple directions in relation to the seats 52, the shift lever 50 is supported so as to be tiltable in at least two direction intersecting at right angles with each other. These seats 52 are accommodated inside of a cap 53 installed from above. Between the upper surface of the upper seat 52 and the inner surface of the cap 53 is installed an elastic member, for example a spring 54, in a compressed state. The cap 53 is fixedly mounted to a casing disposed thereunder, by fastening means (not shown) such as bolts. Accordingly, on the contact surfaces of the ball portion 51 and the seats 52 is acting a contact load by an elastic force of the spring 54. The above-mentioned actual feeling of manipulation of the shift lever 50 is afforded by a frictional force resulting from this contact load.
In the shift-lever supporting apparatus described above, therefore, the shift lever 50 is supported by five members in all including the pair of upper and lower seats 52, the spring 54, the cap 53, and the casing. To decrease a cost and to facilitate assembly operation, however, it is desired to reduce the number of component parts required.
The frictional force between the ball portion 51 and the seats 52 acts as a resisting force (an operating load) to a force required to operate the shift lever 50, giving the driver the actual feeling of manipulation of the shift lever 50. The frictional force, however, is largely affected by the dimensional accuracy and surface roughness of the outer surface of the ball portion 51 and the inner surface and the dimensional accuracy of the cap 53 give a great effect to the aforesaid frictional force. To set the frictional force to a design value, a higher machining accuracy is required, and consequently in the aforementioned prior-art apparatus the number of machining processes increases, resulting in low productivity and a high cost.